STITCHES West 2019, day two

Good morning. Oh boy, it’s Sunday already? I just had some king crab and corn chowder soup from Costco after a cup of mint green tea. The teenager is working on her Kumamon mini lego set of a bear out here while the husband is watching something in the office and the tween may be reading in her bedroom.

Day Two, Friday – The Marketplace

I got to sleep in a bit til 7am and did my usual mom duties. The husband dropped off the teen and got gas for my CRV. I left the house between 8:30 to quarter til. Google Maps led me the same way as Thursday. I parked in the garage and charged up my phone. While browsing on it found Renee of Confessions of a Yarn Addict had messaged me on Ravelry so I called her and she was already in line with friends where I joined them. I got to meet two more new friends (Yippee! I forgot to mention I had met two new knitters yesterday in Andrea’s class and that we had friended one another on Ravelry.) – one knew Renee from college and was visiting from Wisconsin while the other was a neighbor of hers. Renee’s youngest son was also in attendance; he is always entertaining and I love his big, blue eyes.

Exploring Around

Once we, eager knitters, were let loose inside the two of us took our annual selfie as you see up in the featured photo of this post. The size of our group varied as sometimes one or more of us would go off to look at a vendor. I wandered off after we first looked at one because I like to look at things in order. There were some eye candy set ups and/or items in the booths:

(for a larger view, click on a photo)

I thought the toddler garments were too cute.

Lunch

Around noon the five of us met up to grab lunch from one of the convention center’s food courts. Of course all the tables were full so we did someone’s one of the group’s idea of making our own alcove and ploppin down to eat:

The baked potato was okay; I liked what was it in but it needed way more butta; I don’t even know if there was even butta in it. I should have gotten the chicken sammie.

Fiber Collection

Weeks before this day I prepared. The Plan: shop with a list and this mindset – buy yarn for projects + no more single skeiners unless it’s Harry Potter of which there is no holds barred. I went through all of my Ravelry bundles of patterns, reminding myself what was what and gauged how I felt about each one. I thought about what was I really going to knit this year and what I didn’t need to look for.

The knitty lingo is usually these:

SABLE – Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy

SEX – Stash Enhancement eXperience.

However, when I was in class yesterday, my teacher felt calling our yarn at home “stash” was like putting it down because usually when one uses that word it has a negative connotation. He preferred Fiber Collection or Fine Arts Collection.

1. Youghiogheny Yarns

Youghiogheny Yarn was the first booth we saw while wandering toward the back. The color and the tweedy bits caught my eye. I liked that it was DK weight as I was looking for yarn for Groovy by Annie Baker. Because this was a new-to-me dyer, I bought three skeins.

2. Knitting on the Fringe

If you haven’t been to STITCHES before, the marketplace can be overwhelming. I was determined to take my time and to look through a booth if I felt it had yarn in weights I was looking for. I ran across Knitting on the Fringe (Tidbit: She used to have a brick and mortar but felt trapped so she bought a small warehouse and now does business online.) and what I liked about her booth is that she had many samples. This one caught my eye:

I like its simplicity of alternating sections of garter stitch and of mohair. You know I can be lazy AF and usually run away from the simplest of lace. So I went into her booth to look at the yarn which she said is from Canada:

This colorway spoke to me. I really like this blue in it along with the mustardy yellow. I like how the red is dark and there is also some green in it. The mohair is dyed to match the yarn. Yes, there are two separate hanks in this bundle. Yay for a new-to-me experience!

3. Forbidden Fiber Co.

Forbidden Fiber Co is a dyer that Renee and I discovered while making our way toward the front of the marketplace last year. It was on my list for Friday because what I had going for Stephen West’s Purlbreak was not bringing me joy. In planning for my shopping trip, I thought to myself, I still want to knit Purlbreak but what should I use &/or look for? I thought of how I’m such a Harry Potter nerd and of that skein of Vault 713 I bought last year from FFC. Then the lightbulb went on and the idea of using all Harry Potter yarns for the shawl would bring me joy!

So I got to talk to the owner of FFC and she thought it was such a cool idea. She told me how she purposely dyed the HP yarns so they’d flow together. Below, the three, middle, big skeins are hers:

The House of Slytherin

House of Ravenclaw II (movie version colors)

House of Ravenclaw I (book colors)

When I start Purlbreak again, I’ll show you the whole palette.

4. Oink Pigments

(pictured above)

Renee introduced me to Oink Pigments last year. I was helped by Alexa again who is fierce with her curly mohawk and knows the stock cold. I bought a skein of Ravin Claw (the first one) + three minis for my Cozy Memories blanket – Let the Sorting Begin!, HufflePuff, and Gryphon Door.

5. White Birch

This yarn company is witty! On the tag it says “Friends don’t let friends craft with insipid yarn.”

I’ve seen this colorway around IG: Nothing Says Screw You Like a Rainbow. There are other rainbow ones with equally witty names if you’re ever interested.

6. A Needle Runs Through It

I bought from this company, which is based in the south bay down from me, a couple of years ago at my first STITCHES. Her projects bags are well-made.

Because I sew, I generally don’t look for bags anymore. I knew she made Harry Potter stitch markers so I grabbed some which made me smile big!

7. Bar-Maids

Renee introduced me to this brand of lotion bars, etc. last year. I loved using Coco Mango every day and it whittled down to pieces by this week.

This time I bought Sweet Plumeria in honor of my Aunty J and loved how they had lip balm too, something I use all the time.

8. YOTH

YOTH stands for Yarn of the House, a sister and brother duo in Maine; isn’t this company name fun?

I did look at their booth before lunch but wasn’t sure. They had a stand of small batch yarn of these tweedy-looking, misty blue/grey/green DK. However, I already bought DK for Groovy and didn’t want to decide upon impulse a pattern from Ravelry.

But I came back with Steph (Don’t know the spelling of her name but she is an entomologist which I thought was super cool.), one of Renee’s friends. I looked at that yarn again and then looked at their worsted weight. I then saw this lovely aqua, called Thyme, and so bought two for the Serafina Cowl by Carrie Bostick Hoge.

I had on my list two patterns that required chunky or bulky yarn. I wasn’t overly disappointed because I had enough to get me started. Many knitters wore Nightshift by Andrea Mowry. Steph bought $200 worth of Spincycle Yarns for her intended Nightshift. I heard yesterday Spincycle Yarns sold out Friday night; awesome sauce for them! I was really tempted to go back in the marketplace Saturday to look for yarn for Nightshift but knew inside it could wait; if I still wanted to knit it after I get these projects done, then it’ll be meant to be.

Okay, GTG as I need to get ready for a tea date with a fellow knitter after I drop off the teen who has a mall date with a tennis friend. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. TTYS.

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18 thoughts on “STITCHES West 2019, day two”

You got some nifty stuff! I love the HP yarn and the rainbow one is super fun and happy! It looks like you had a great time. Plus that chowder sounds amazing. We made salmon and corn chowder last night. It was delicious!

You have some lovely yarn and the patterns you have picked for them are amazing too. Someday I hope to go to a fiber festival. Living in the desert of Arizona, they don’t have them here. People think it is too hot to wear knits. I find shawls are perfect for here with the A/C in commercial buildings blowing at full force. This winter has seen me wearing lots of hats, fingerless mitts and scarves. Wish I had a hand made sweater……..hopefully that will be done by next winter. Those HP stitch markers are the bomb. I wonder if I got those for my Grand if she would pick up knitting again. She is a HUGE HP fan too.

Your Stitches West fiber collection was drool worthy! Especially love all of the Harry Potter yarns & stitch-markers. It’s a good thing that you made a game plan. Lots of tempting vendors to choose from.